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Effective Color image watermarking scheme using YCbCr color space and QR code

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C. Patvardhan at Dayalbagh Educational Institute
C. Patvardhan
Pragyesh Kumar
Pragyesh Kumar
Pragyesh Kumar
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Chenna Lakshmi at Rajeev Gandhi Memorial College of Engineering and Technology
Chenna Lakshmi
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Abstract and Figures

A digital image watermarking technique is proposed to hide the relevant information in color digital images. The image is converted from RGB color space to YCbCr color space. This enables the algorithm to exploit characteristics of the Human Visual System (HVS) for embedding the watermark. The scheme embeds the watermark information utilizing wavelets transforms and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) for this purpose. It uses a Quick Response (QR) code as the watermark. The QR code is a robust code from which embedded information can be extracted even if the retrieved QR code image is distorted. Thus the proposed technique employs a judicious combination of different algorithmic ideas including altered YCbCr color space, transformation into wavelet domain, SVD for selection of places to embed and QR codes for enhanced robustness. The watermarking scheme proposed is robust against various signal processing attacks (e.g. filtering, compression, noise addition etc.) as well as geometric attacks (e.g. rotation, cropping etc.). Computational experiments on a variety of cover images show that embedding QR code is more effective than the other watermarks in terms of better information carrying capacity, robustness and imperceptibility. The proposed scheme is novel and effective as it simultaneously provides advantages of each of the individual elements combined in this approach.
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Multimed Tools Appl (2018) 77:12655–12677
DOI 10.1007/s11042-017-4909-1
Effective color image watermarking scheme using
YCbCr color space and QR code
C. Patvardhan1·Pragyesh Kumar1·
C. Vasantha Lakshmi2
Received: 26 July 2016 / Revised: 14 April 2017 / Accepted: 5 June 2017 /
Published online: 23 June 2017
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2017
Abstract A digital image watermarking technique is proposed to hide the relevant informa-
tion in color digital images. The image is converted from RGB color space to YCbCr color
space. This enables the algorithm to exploit characteristics of the Human Visual System
(HVS) for embedding the watermark. The scheme embeds the watermark information utiliz-
ing wavelets transforms and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) for this purpose. It uses
a Quick Response (QR) code as the watermark. The QR code is a robust code from which
embedded information can be extracted even if the retrieved QR code image is distorted.
Thus the proposed technique employs a judicious combination of different algorithmic ideas
including altered YCbCr color space, transformation into wavelet domain, SVD for selec-
tion of places to embed and QR codes for enhanced robustness. The watermarking scheme
proposed is robust against various signal processing attacks (e.g. filtering, compression,
noise addition etc.) as well as geometric attacks (e.g. rotation, cropping etc.). Computational
experiments on a variety of cover images show that embedding QR code is more effective
than the other watermarks in terms of better information carrying capacity, robustness and
imperceptibility. The proposed scheme is novel and effective as it simultaneously provides
advantages of each of the individual elements combined in this approach.
Keywords Digital image watermarking ·YCbCr color model ·QR code ·
Wavelet transform ·Color image
Pragyesh Kumar
er.prag@gmail.com
C. Patvardhan
cpatvardhan@gmail.com
C. Vasantha Lakshmi
cvasanthalakshmi@gmail.com
1Department of Electrical Engineering, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra, India
2Department of Physics and Computer Science, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra, India
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
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